Deep-sea coral evidence for dissolved mercury evolution in the deep North Pacific Ocean over the last 700 years -- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2021,39(5):1622-1633

	Cite this paper:
	Yang QU, Kuidong XU, Tao LI, Maoyu WANG, Huan ZHONG, Tianyu CHEN. Deep-sea coral evidence for dissolved mercury evolution in the deep North Pacific Ocean over the last 700 years[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2021, 39(5): 1622-1633

Deep-sea coral evidence for dissolved mercury evolution in the deep North Pacific Ocean over the last 700 years

Yang QU¹, Kuidong XU², Tao LI¹, Maoyu WANG¹, Huan ZHONG^3,4, Tianyu CHEN^1,5

1 State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China;
2 Laboratory of Marine Organism Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Institute of Oceanology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China;
3 State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China;
4 Environmental and Life Sciences Program (EnLS), Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario K9L 0G2, Canada;
5 Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China

Abstract:

The ocean is an important inventory of anthropogenic mercury (Hg), yet the history of anthropogenic Hg accumulation in the ocean remains largely unexplored. Deep-sea corals are an emerging archive of past ocean chemistry, which take in sinking or suspended particulate organic matter as their food sources. Such organic matter would exchange Hg with the local seawater before being consumed by the deepsea corals. As such, the organics preserved in the coral skeleton may record the Hg evolution of the ambient seawater during the time of coral growth. Here, we report the first data on Hg concentrations variability of a deep-sea proteinaceous coral in the oligotrophic North Pacific at the water depth of 1 249 m, in attempt to understand the transfer of anthropogenic Hg into the deep Pacific ocean over the last seven centuries. We find that the Hg concentrations of different coral growth layers have remained relatively constant albeit with considerable short-term variability through time. The overall stable Hg concentration of the last seven centuries recorded in our sample suggests that anthropogenic pollution is not yet a clearly resolvable component in the deep oligotrophic North Pacific waters, in agreement with recent estimation from modelling works and observational studies of modern seawater profiles. As there is hardly an unambiguous way to separate anthropogenic Hg from the natural background based on recent seawater profiles, our historical data provide valuable information helping to understand the oceanic cycle of Hg through time.

Key words: deep-sea coral|mercury|deep water|particulate organic matter|anthropogenic perturbation

Received: 2020-12-14 Revised: 2021-02-05

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